


Tea on Fridays

by EmmaBryonyFox



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Critical Role Relationship Week, F/M, Fjord as Barista, Implied Beauyasha, Implied Widomauk, Pining Jester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 16:34:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14958158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmmaBryonyFox/pseuds/EmmaBryonyFox
Summary: Every Friday, Jester and Caleb go to the “Take a little break” coffee shop.Every Friday, Jester orderes jasmine tea.Every Friday, Jester draws the handsome barista she has fallen in love with.Until one Friday, she actually gatheres the courage to talk to him.





	Tea on Fridays

**Author's Note:**

> Day 1 of the Critical Role Relationship week. And yes, Jester and Fjord were my first random relationship. And yes, I know I’m late.

Jester had been drawing the very handsome barista at her new favourite coffee shop since she had first laid eyes on him. She had always thought that she would fall in love with a strong and elegant hero, but the a little chubby and sometimes clumsy half-orc had stolen Jester’s heart within seconds. She hadn’t visited another coffee shop than this one since then. She wasn’t stalking Fjord – as his name tag said – of course not, she was just curious. And fascinated. And by the way, she really liked the jasmine tea they served here. So that was another very good and very valid reason to come here.

It had all started with a coincidence, a really fortunate one, as Jester liked to think. They had wanted to celebrate Caleb’s birthday, but since he didn’t want them to do something big, they had agreed to go and buy him a coffee and a cupcake for breakfast. However, they thought it was best to try something new and not go to the same coffee shop they always visited, and so Molly, Jester and Nott had walked through the vast streets of Zadash, looking for the best they could find, while Beau and Yasha had rummaged through pawn shops in search of some antique and interesting books, but that wasn’t important right now.

Anyway, after some running, Molly had finally found the “Take a little break” coffee shop. They had liked the name and the exterior’s appearance – a green building with pots of colourful flowers standing near the door – so they hadn’t hesitated to enter. They hadn’t been disappointed. The interior was warm, the walls painted with sea plants and the few patrons were relaxed and contributed to the quiet and comfortable atmosphere. Jester had loved it instantaneously. While she had lingered in the doorway, Molly and Nott had approached the counter behind which “he” had been. A pencil stuck behind his ear, a cream-coloured apron over his dark clothes and, most surprisingly, no tusks. Jester had never seen a half-orc without tusks, and so that was probably what fascinated her the most. Molly had ordered, and Jester had heard his voice, dark and with an accent she didn’t know, and only some moments after, Nott and Molly had already dragged her out of the coffee shop again. 

Jester had not thought about that day in a rather long time. Caleb’s birthday had distracted her and by the end of the day, the half-orc had only been a faint memory, not clear enough to fully grasp it. Her life had gone on. Until Caleb, of all her friends, changed it completely, that was how Jester saw it, anyway. He had asked where they had gotten his birthday breakfast. 

Reentering the “Take a little break” had been as if Jester was finding something she had longed for for weeks, without being aware of it. The half-orc had still been there, of course, and he had taken Caleb’s and Jester’s order and he had talked with the same dark, beautiful voice. That was the first day Jester had drawn him. Thankfully, it wasn’t the last one. Both Caleb and Jester had liked it there, so they had returned. Every Friday, after Jester’s art class and Caleb’s shift at the library, they met on the same table in a corner in the back of the coffee shop, because Caleb felt more comfortable there. Jester wasn’t complaining, she could see Fjord very well from back there. Although they were in a coffee shop, Jester always ordered a jasmine tea.

She and Caleb never talked much, that would surprise their friends, Jester was usually a very cheery and talkative person, but Caleb’s quietness seemed to have passed on on Jester, at least on Fridays. So they spent their time in silence, Caleb reading a new book every week and studying for his transmutation classes, and Jester drawing Fjord. Of course she didn’t only draw Fjord, sometimes she also drew the interior of the coffee shop, or the other guests, or Caleb, but they were not as interesting as the half-orc. She would have been able to draw him blindly by now.

Soon, Friday became Jester’s favourite day and she couldn’t wait all week to sit at their table again, drinking jasmine tea and drawing Fjord. Needless to say, it didn’t take her friends that long to notice that something was different. Molly was the first one that said something. 

For her photography class, Jester was taking pictures of the dress rehearsal of the theatre class and during the break, Molly, who of course played the main part, caught her thumb through her sketchbook and admiring her drawings of Fjord.

“Who’s that?”, he asked unexpected and Jester startled, quickly closing the sketchbook. Molly looked at her anticipatory, waiting for a story that Jester wasn’t sure she was ready to give. So she attempted to deny everything.

“This? That’s… no one?”, she answered, but she knew very well that Molly would find out sooner or later, so it didn’t actually matter, although Jester still wanted to keep Fjord a secret, her own little secret. Of course that had to end one day.

“Do you remember that little coffee shop we found on Caleb’s birthday?”, Jester asked and Molly seemed to almost immediately understand.

“I knew I had seen that half-orc before”, Molly said enthusiastically and his excitement made Jester excited as well and before she could stop herself, she started to just talk Molly’s head off.

“Oh, Molly, he is so fascinating! He’s so handsome, that mysterious scar and those yellow eyes, and he’s nice, he’s never grumpy or anything and by now he knows that I’m always ordering jasmine tea, and his voice, oh gods, his voice, it’s so wonderful, I never knew a voice could be so dark and that accent, I still don’t know which one it is. And he’s so easy to draw. I could do it all day, watching him and drawing him, and watching, and drawing, he’s so wonderful, Molly, I think I’m in love!”

Molly listened to Jester gushing about her crush and an amused smirk appeared on his face. As soon as she took a break to breath, he interrupted her, because otherwise, she would have gone on until the end of the day.

“Have you already talked to him?”, he asked and then watched Jester’s blue cheeks turn slightly purple. Seeing her blush was a rare sight, so Molly concluded that there had not yet been an exchange of words.

“Jester, you can’t just sit there and draw him without talking to him.”

“I know, but I have no idea what I’m gonna say”, complained Jester and before Molly could think of any advice, the break ended and he had to get backstage. The dress rehearsal went on and Jester had to concentrate on not messing up the pictures.

That evening, Jester told Beau. She had told Molly, so why not telling her roommate? It was somewhere in the middle of the night, Jester didn’t know the exact time, but she was aware that Beau wasn’t asleep anyway, still texting with Yasha, so Jester didn’t see any problem there. Although the other woman seemed utterly annoyed at first, that didn’t prevent her from talking. After the first words, Beau already cut Jester’s beginning flow off.

“Are you talking about Fjord?”, she asked bored, still focusing on her conversation with Yasha, and left Jester stunned. Beau knew Fjord? Beau knew Fjord. Why did Beau know Fjord?

“Beau, why do you know Fjord?”, she finally asked after recovering from the literal shock. 

“We’re using the same gym. Yasha knows him, too”, Beau explained almost indifferent. Jester could just stare at her in disbelief. How was this even possible? Why hadn’t she met Fjord earlier?

“It’s funny, he’s talking a lot about a blue tiefling always ordering jasmine tea lately. That doesn’t happen to be you by any chance?”, Beau then told, still not looking up from her phone.

“Why didn’t you ask me that earlier?”, Jester asked, feeling a bit angry at Beau for not revealing a single word about this.

“I wanted to, but either I got distracted, or your were distracted and didn’t want to listen to me. Now go to sleep, I’m tired. And by the way, tomorrow’s Friday, so you’ll see him again”, Beau explained, before turning off her phone and disappearing underneath her blanket. Jester was left alone in the dark, and she was scared. Not of the dark, of course not, but of the next day. Fjord had noticed her, too. He had talked about her. That was what frightened her. Maybe he was expecting something different. Maybe in the end, he wouldn’t even like her. 

In that moment, Jester decided that she had to talk to him. She had waited long enough.

 

Caleb was already sitting at their table, his spell book and an untouched muffin before him. He didn’t notice Jester entering, he seemed to have disappeared into his own world. Good, that meant he wouldn’t ask any questions. Determined, Jester marched up to the counter behind which Fjord was standing, waiting for her. He looked up the moment Jester stopped and prepared to talk. However, before a word could leave her mouth, he already had asked a question.

“Jasmine tea for ya, right?” 

Jester could only nod. She didn’t even know what she had wanted to say anymore, she just watched Fjord prepare her tea. Damn, what was she supposed to do now? She wasn’t used to being so… unsure.

“Here you go.”

Fjord handed her the tea and his big smile gave Jester the courage to talk again.

“Thank you. I’m Jester, by the way”, Jester introduced herself and reached out her hand.

“Fjord. Nice to finally know your name”, he answered, shaking her hand. An awkward moment of silence followed but Jester managed to break it with an even more awkward question, but well, at least she was saying something.

“So, when do you don’t work? Maybe we could go somewhere and do something like, hang out? Like, just the two of us? Gods, why do I sound like Beau?”

Did she say the last part out loud? Did she say any of that out loud? Fjord’s now even bigger smile affirmed her thoughts, she had just made a fool out of herself.

“Are you asking me for a date?”, Fjord asked, kindness in his dark voice and an amused twinkle in his eyes. However, somehow Jester could also detect confusion in his facial expression, faint, but there.

“Yes. Is it so surprising that I’d want to go out with you?”, Jester asked a bit offended by his confusion. Probably he just didn’t want to go out with her, so he did as if her question was too sudden and too unexpected for him to answer immediately. 

“Well, don’t you have a boyfriend?”, Fjord asked and now it was Jester’s turn to be confused. 

“What? Why would you think I had a –“, Jester followed Fjord’s gaze to her usual table, where Caleb was sitting, apparently copying a new spell into his book, not noticing anything going on in the coffee shop. Wait, did Fjord think that Caleb and Jester were a couple? She burst into laughter, she couldn’t prevent it, she even had to set her tea cup down on the counter, otherwise, it would probably have fallen down. Some moments later, she calmed down and looked into Fjord’s now quizzical yellow eyes.

“Caleb’s not my boyfriend. We’re friends, nothing more. He’s in a happy relationship with someone else”, Jester explained, still laughing a bit. She really couldn’t imagine herself and Caleb… no, she couldn’t even think it. Fjord’s expression had changed to surprise and disbelief, but also to relief. So Jester asked again.

“Do you want to go on a date with me?”

“Sure! Why not?”


End file.
